1 CHRONICLES 5 POSITION YOURSELF FOR FAITHFULNESS2015 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 1 Chronicles 5 Position Yourself For Faithfulness

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2015. If you're reading along with us in the Bible in three years, this week has probably been one of the most exciting and weeks of reading for you yet. Am I right? Of course, I'm being sarcastic, right? If you've been reading along with us, you know this week we've been looking at

genealogies. 1 Chronicles chapter 1 through 9 are a lot of lists of a lot of people's names, and sometimes those times in the word can be rough, and we wrestle with them. You know, is it okay to kind of like skim over it, or do I have to understand every name, and what that means, or where that goes, or what they did, or anything like that. And I know that can be a time of wrestling, but rest assured, tomorrow 1 Corinthians or 1 Chronicles chapter 10

starts the account again, and we're going to revisit some of the history that we've already been reading through in 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings. And so we'll be starting with the kingdom of David and getting to spend some time reflecting on the life of David and the kings that were after him. So better things are ahead, I assure you. And yet in the midst of all those names and such, there is different pockets of things that

the Lord might have been speaking to you about. And one of those passages here in 1 Chronicles chapter 5 is a very good one for us to consider as we look at three tribes of the nation of Israel, Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh. And here in this passage that we're looking at in 1 Chronicles chapter 5, we see these three tribes join together and have a great victory in

But then at the end of the passage, these three same tribes go into captivity. And how is it that you or a people can go from great victory in trusting God and God working in their lives to then captivity as a result of their unfaithfulness to God?

It's a good thing for us to consider because many people follow this same pattern and they have great victories in their lives, but then later on end up in captivity as a result of their unfaithfulness to God.

The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 tells us that the Old Testament was written so that we could learn from their example the things that we should not do. And these three tribes are a good example for us of what not to do, of learning, you know, what God wants us to do instead of

the things that we should not be doing. And so we're going to consider these three tribes, Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh this morning. Now, before we get into that part of the message, I want to take a moment and just show you a little bit of the geography so that you understand what we're talking about as we talk about these three different tribes. Here's a quick map of the land of Israel.

And some of the features, the hallmarks of the land of Israel is the Sea of Galilee. And you remember, of course, the ministry of Jesus. A lot happened around the Sea of Galilee. And so that's in the northern part of Israel. And then you have the Jordan River that flows out of the Sea of Galilee all the way down to the Dead Sea.

And so these are, you know, kind of the water features of the land of Israel. And then on the other side of Israel, of course, is the Mediterranean Sea. You have Mount Hermon all the way up at the top there, then far north. And that's a real tall mountain. And then the hills and the rest of Israel are not like nowhere even near. Like Hermon, I think, is like 10,000 feet high and like 10,000

Jerusalem is around 2,500 feet high. So it's not real, real hilly. It's not, you know, super mountainy, but it's got some hills and valleys and these big, you know, portions of water with the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River, and then the Dead Sea. Now,

when they were delivered from Egypt, they of course spent some time in the wilderness and they came up from the wilderness on the right-hand side here of Edom and Moab. And then they were making their way to the Jordan River. And there on the banks of the Jordan River, they were going to cross over the Jordan to inherit the promised land that God had been telling them about. And so the promised land,

God had been promising to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, and they were about to receive it. But there Moses finished out his ministry on the banks of the Jordan, handed the baton on to Joshua, and then Joshua led the children of Israel across the Jordan River into that land to begin to conquer the nations and the peoples that were there as God instructed them to do so.

And so as you look at this, you see that the promised land was here across the Jordan River. And so they were going to cross over the Jordan and then be in the promised land. That was the land that God had been speaking to them about and God had promised to them. But before they crossed over into the promised land, on the east side...

Yeah, the east side of the Jordan River. I'm really bad with directions, so I might mix those up. But where Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh are, there was other nations there, and they were hostile towards Israel. And so they began to attack Israel. And so Moses actually led the armies of Israel to conquer this area because those kings were attacking them. And so they conquered, and they were victorious, and they won this part of the land as well.

And so the three tribes...

Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh said, you know, we've just conquered this land, and it's really nice. It's really great. It's perfect for the cattle that we have. And so we think we're going to just stay here. Moses, what do you think? And you guys can cross over to the other side and inherit the promised land. But we like this side of the Jordan. It's really nice, and it fits our needs very well. And so those three tribes stayed on the east side of the Jordan River. And they said, this land is good enough for us.

But as you look at the history of these three tribes, you can see that these three tribes quickly turned away from God. Now, the rest of Israel also turned away from God, but these three tribes did so at a more rapid pace. The rest of the nation of Israel also rebelled against God to the point of captivity, just like Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh did. But Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh turned away from God.

rebelled to a quicker extent and they were taken captive first before the rest of the nation was led into captivity. And so they were the first of Israel to go into captivity. And as we look at these three tribes today, I want to suggest to you that it's a large part due to how they positioned themselves. They set themselves up

for failure. They set themselves up to be in this position and as a result experience the consequences of it. And so again, as Paul said, these things are written so that we learn what not to do. And so this morning I'd like to encourage you to position yourself for faithfulness. Position yourself for faithfulness. And there's three points that we'll work through. But before we get into the first point, just remember that

The parable that Jesus taught. The parable of the wise and the foolish builder. You remember that Jesus said the wise man, when he built his house, he dug down deep to build his house upon the rock so that the foundation was laid upon the rock so that it was sturdy. While the foolish builder laid the foundation or built his house on the sand.

And of course, it's foolish to build a house on the sand because it's not going to last. But what's interesting about that parable that Jesus told is that the storm came. And for both houses, they experienced a storm. The house that was secured upon the rock was

experienced a storm, the same storm that the house that was built upon the sand experienced. And the point is, everybody is going to experience storm. We're all going to experience difficulties and challenges and temptations in our life. And the key to success, the key to survival, the key to faithfulness is

is to dig down deep and build our house, build our spiritual life upon the rock. I want to encourage you this morning, don't establish your spiritual life expecting things to always be easy.

I believe that's what Reuben Gad and Manasseh did. They thought, hey, this is good enough. This is great. And they didn't consider the long-term effects and challenges that they would face being in that place across the Jordan River from the rest of the nation of Israel. And sometimes we make decisions as believers, and we put ourselves in a position that might be OK for the moment, but long-term, it's really harmful for us.

And we make decisions about things in our lives that in the long term begin to pull us away from the things of God. And so I want to encourage you to be thinking about your life in that regard.

Position yourself for faithfulness because there are going to be storms. You are going to face challenges. There are going to be great temptations and difficulties that you don't anticipate at the moment. And right now is the time for us to prepare, for us to dig down deep and set ourselves upon the rock.

And so as we consider this idea of positioning ourselves for faithfulness, the first thing I'd like to look at as we consider Reuben Gad and Manasseh is to keep crying out to God.

In order for you to be faithful long-term, in order for you, you know, in the big picture to continue to maintain your faithful relationship with God, you're going to need to keep on crying out to God. Here in this passage in 1 Chronicles 5, we see Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh join together for a battle.

We don't know exactly the timing and exactly when this is taking place, but we have a few details here. They gather together for battle against some of the peoples around them. And the point of this account is that they are greatly outnumbered in this battle. This passage highlights that fact. They are a small army, and yet they defeated a much larger army. Check out verse 18.

It says, And so here it highlights, it tells us they had specifically 44,760 soldiers in this battle.

And so in this battle that they fought, in this war that they had against these other nations, they had 44,000 soldiers. Now that sounds like a lot. It's definitely more than we have, you know, here in this room, right? It's a big amount of people, 44,000 people in a stadium. That's a pretty big crowd, right? And so it was a good amount of soldiers that they had, and yet...

the army that they fought was much larger. And it's easy to see that as you look at the spoils of war that they walked away with after victory. Look at verse 21. It says, then they took away their livestock, 50,000 of their camels, 250,000 of their sheep, and 2,000 of their donkeys. But then notice also 100,000 of their men.

And so in this battle that they fought, in this war that they fought, we don't know exactly how much the other side had in the battle, but we know at least there was 100,000 of them because that's how many they took away captive.

So those are two to one odds in going to battle. You know, there was two of the enemy for every one of them, and that's just the captives. But it also tells us in verse 23, for many fell dead. So there is actually more than 100,000. So they were outnumbered two to one, maybe three to one, maybe four to one. Uh,

we don't know the exact number, but there was this great army against them. They were greatly outnumbered and yet they had victory. In fact, it's kind of an interesting picture. You know, if you think about 44,000 leading away captive, 100,000 men, you know, along with these other sheep and livestock and such. I mean, you can see it was a great victory, a massive victory. And so they had this incredible work that God had done.

And how did this happen? How did they have this victory when they were outnumbered to this extent? Well, we see in verse 20 that they did the right thing. In the midst of the battle, they cried out to God. In verse 20, it says, they were helped against them. And the Hagrites were delivered into their hand and all who were with them. For they cried out to God in the battle. He heeded their prayer because they put their trust in him. The

Picture that's being painted here is not that God sent them into battle, but that they got to the battle. They were in the midst of the battle and they realized, whoa, we're really outnumbered here. We're going to lose this battle. We're going to die here on the battlefield. And it's at that point that they cry out to God. And as they cry out to God, it says that he heeds their prayer because they put their trust in him. And so they put themselves in the Lord's hands and said, God, we're in way over our heads.

And we can't do this. We're dead without you. We're going to trust in you. If we live, it's because of your work. And they cried out to God in the midst of the battle. And it says that they were helped against the enemy. God helped them. And he brought them this great victory. I like what Matthew Henry says about this. He says, "'Though need drove them to him, he is ready to hear and answer prayer.'"

They were helped against their enemies, for God never yet failed any that trusted in him. They didn't draw near to God so much because, you know, they just loved God and wanted to know him more and were passionate about him. They called out to God. They cried out to God because they were in the midst of a very urgent, difficult situation, and they were going to die without him.

And yet God is gracious and merciful and he's ready to hear and answer their prayers. And he helps them against the enemy. And I like the end part of that quote. He says, for God never yet failed any that trust in him. God has never yet failed anyone who has trusted in him. He is always faithful.

He's always faithful to those who trust in him. And so they cried out to God. They trusted in him. He met their need and they had this great victory. Now, how did they go from there? This great victory. They cried out to God. God worked. They knew God was on their side. They knew God helped them. How did they go from that situation to then turning away from God? And I would suggest to you that it was because they did not continue to cry out to God.

It's one thing to cry out to God in the moment when there's a great need. There's a pressing situation. Oh no, what are we going to do? Let's pray. That's one thing. And that's a good thing. And that's something that we ought to do in those situations. The right thing to do is to cry out to God and trust in him. But the question is, do you live in that condition? And Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh didn't live in that condition. They didn't continue to cry out to God, but they cried out to him this one time when they had a need and

And then afterwards, they didn't trust him in the same way that they did before. And why is that? Well, maybe there's some hints here in the passage. In verse 23, it tells us that the children of the half tribe of Manasseh dwelt in the land and their numbers increased from Bashan to Baal Hermon, that is to Seneir or Mount Hermon. But notice what it says, their numbers increased.

So there was this situation where they were a small army. They were vastly outnumbered and they realized we need help and they cried out to God. But then their numbers increased. They weren't so small anymore. They didn't have the disadvantage that they once had. And so in their increase, in the blessing of having a stronger people, a stronger nation, there was some security. And so they...

found themselves not crying out to God, not trusting in God because, well, there wasn't the need to trust in God like there used to be. In verse 24, it also tells us there were mighty men of valor and famous men, the heads of their father's houses. So not only did their numbers increase, but they had famous men in their midst.

They had mighty men of valor. They had men who had great victories and stories written about them and songs written about them. And so they would easily begin to rest and trust in their own strength and in their own resources rather than crying out to God. Oh yeah, in the moment of need when they realized they were vastly outnumbered, they cried out to God. But then as the numbers increased and as

They had mighty men of valor and famous men in their midst that they could look to and trust in and rely upon. They weren't trusting in God in the way that they once did. And that's important lessons for us because we can, again, follow that same pattern. I want to encourage you this morning to position yourself for faithfulness. In order to do that, you need to keep crying out to God. I'm sure that we've all had the experience of

of crying out to God in a moment of need. And God has not yet failed those who trust in him. Now, God doesn't always answer our prayers and, you know, do what we want exactly the way we want it or when we want it. And yet, as we look over our lives, we can testify, God has not yet failed whenever I've trusted in him. He may have done things a different way. He may have done what he wanted to do. But later on, I realized, oh yeah, that is the better way.

He's not failed. And we've had that experience. We've cried out to God and he has answered and he has resolved and he has worked and he's worked mighty victories in our lives. But the question for us to consider is, do you keep crying out to God? Do you live in that kind of relationship with God where you rely upon him and trust in him, not just occasionally when you're outnumbered, but day by day that you are trusting in God?

or the way that Jesus put it, are you abiding in the vine, looking to Jesus, trusting in Jesus, resting in Jesus, receiving everything that you need from Jesus because he is the vine and we are the branches. That's the way that he's called us to live. But if we just cry out to God occasionally or when there's the urgent need, if that's the only time that we cry out to God and trust in him, well, we will follow the pattern of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh.

And we will eventually come to the point where we are unfaithful to God. Because it's not enough to just cry out to him once in a while or in those moments of need. Now again, I want to be clear. In those moments of great need, absolutely, by all means, cry out to God. The point I'm seeking to make is don't cry out to God only at those times. But we need to cry out to God on an ongoing, consistent, regular basis.

We need to trust in God on an ongoing, consistent, and regular basis. Now, how do we do that? When our numbers increase, okay, so you know how it is. Your finances are low. The bank account's running out, you know, running out or negative perhaps, and there's bills to be paid, and you cry out to God, and God helps you make ends meet. But then when the bank account is full, how do you trust God the same way? How do you cry out to God the same way? It's a challenge for us.

When the numbers increase, when things get better, when things are going well, we don't think about our need for God. And it's easy to lose sight of trusting in him in that same way. And so how do we maintain this position for us of keeping this cry out to God and this trust in God? I would suggest two things for you to consider. First of all, remember where your strength comes from. Remind yourself where you once were. Remind yourself of what God has done. Remind yourself

that your resources are really God's resources, and it's things that God has provided for you. And so you must continue to trust in him for those things. And so that's one thing. We can remember where our strength comes from, remember the past victories that he's given to us. But secondly, I would suggest, here's how to keep ourselves in a state where we keep crying out to God. You may not like this very much, but here's how you can do it. Do things that require you to trust God. Take steps of faith.

Put yourself in a position where you have to trust God, where you have to cry out to God like you once did. Now, I'm not saying be foolish and risk everything and lose everything. Do things that you know

would bless God and God would want in your life. Take steps of faith and reach out in ways that you don't normally, that you're uncomfortable reaching out in. Learn to trust God in your daily life by doing things that you know God would want to do and would want to bless. I like what Pastor John Corson says. I quote it often. "Every Christian should be involved in something that will fail unless God is involved." What are you involved in that will fail unless God is involved?

What are you involved in that-- well, you have to cry out to God because you're vastly outnumbered. It's three to one. It's four to one. There's no way that this can happen unless God is at work, unless God comes through. What are you involved with? And you could think about this in your personal life. You could think about this in the workplace. You can think about it within the church. But what are some things in your life that you can do that you know God wants and what God would love to bless?

But they're uncomfortable. And so it requires us to trust him, to step out in faith because we recognize, we realize we don't have the resources. Maybe it's not our favorite thing to do. Maybe coming on Saturday and making yourself available to pray for people is not your favorite thing to do. But maybe you need to put yourself in a position where you have to trust God.

You go, well, I don't know what I'm going to say, and I don't have the words to say, and I don't know how I'm going to pray, and I don't, exactly. And you're going to have to trust God to meet your needs and provide for you. Maybe you're going to have to put yourself in a position where you share the gospel with someone around you. I don't know. They're going to have questions, and I don't know how I'm going to answer the questions, and I don't like those kinds of situations, and I hate people. And exactly, yes. Yes.

You're going to have to put yourself. You see, the point is you have to position yourself for faithfulness. You have to set yourself up to succeed. Put yourself in a position where you have to trust in God, to cry out to him, and then you get to watch him work. But it's so easy for us. Once we've had the victory, it's like, okay, well, now we can just relax. Now we can just rest in this victory that God has provided. That's what Reuben Gad and Manasseh did.

They didn't have that urgency to cry out to God anymore. They didn't have that need to trust in God anymore. And so they began to trust in other things. And that's the reality that we face. If we're not trusting in God, if we're not crying out to God, our hearts are going to begin to trust in something else. And so there's a need for you to position yourself for faithfulness.

to remind yourself of your need for God and put yourself in situations where you have to trust God so that you continue to walk with him and trust him in that way. Well, secondly, as we continue to look at their example, I would share with you that we need to keep a clear path to God. If you're going to position yourself for faithfulness, if you're going to last the distance and be able to have endurance in your relationship with God, you're going to need to have a clear path to

And this, I think, is another key factor in the unfaithfulness of these tribes. It's their location. And let me remind you again here on the map where they were at. The nation of Israel was promised the land west of the Jordan. But Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh got to the edge of the Jordan and said, you know, this is good enough.

And there was a natural division between the west and the east. You have the Sea of Galilee with the Jordan River running all the way down to the Dead Sea. It's just a natural border, a natural division of the land. Now, is it such a big deal that they inhabited this side of the Jordan River? Well, in some respects, no, it wasn't that big of a deal. In fact, they asked and God allowed it. But consider this question. Where was the tabernacle going to be?

Remember the tabernacle that God had them set up at Mount Sinai? He gave them the instructions. He gave them all kinds of policies and procedures around it of how they could come and worship God and connect with God. And the tabernacle was going to be where the presence of God was. And that's where he would meet with his people. And for 40 years in the wilderness, he traveled around with them in this tabernacle. And he met with the people. And they spent time with him. And they worshiped him. They walked together. Where was that tabernacle going to be?

it was not going to be on the east side of the Jordan. It was going to be across the Jordan. Now the Jordan was not an uncrossable river. It was a river that it was plausible. It was realistic. It was regularly crossed.

But it wasn't a tiny little creek either. It was big enough for God to part the Jordan River in order for Joshua to lead the people across from one side to the other.

And so God said, you know, hey, it's a big enough river. I can show my might and freak out the people of the promised land that you're going to drive out and you're going to walk across on dry land. It was a big enough river for that. It was a big enough river that God said, hey, there's a need. It would make it a lot easier if I just, you know, parted the river so that you guys could walk through on dry ground. And so it wasn't a huge, the biggest river that's ever seen in the world, but it also wasn't nothing, right?

it was going to take some effort to cross the Jordan River. It was going to take some purpose, some discipline to cross the Jordan River. And the Jordan River would easily become a big enough hurdle for people to decide, you know, I think I'll pass this trip to visit the tabernacle. I remember talking to Pastor Tom Hallman soon after he moved out to Virginia and was beginning the church plant there.

And he was just getting used to the culture change. And although we live in the United States, there's a pretty big culture difference between Southern California and Virginia. And one of the things that Tom had learned that he was sharing with me and intrigued by, and it was pretty interesting, was he was sharing that the Virginians, they have this mental block. They have this prohibition in their mind where they...

If they cross too many bridges, they start to get uncomfortable. Even though to cross over a bridge today, you know, you're driving on a car. If you go 20 miles and you cross five bridges, it's the same as if you go 20 miles and you don't cross any bridges, right? There's really no difference. Yet what he found was people were really uncomfortable if they had to cross too many bridges to get to church. So they would rather go to a church church

Maybe even farther away that had less bridges that they had to cross. They would rather, you know, go somewhere else that they were maybe not so comfortable with the church. They didn't like the ministry so much. They weren't faithful to the word. But there was less bridges that they had to cross in order to get there. There was, there's just, you know, something in their culture, something that provides this mental thing where they feel uncomfortable crossing bridges, right?

And not like it's a fear of it. It's just, you know, it just makes it in their mind think, ah, it's too far. That's like five bridges away, you know. And they have a lot of rivers and things going through. And so, you know, it's a big deal for them. And it became a factor of who would attend their church and who would participate because, well, depending on how many bridges there were that they would have to cross. And you can imagine when there's no bridges and you have to work about, you know, crossing over the Jordan River, you

those obstacles would become very real and would start to make you think, well, do I really want to get over there? How confident am I really that, you know, this is something that I need? And the reality that you and I face today is that we are constantly battling our natural tendencies. And this is something you got to come to grips with. I'm sure you've heard, you know, that

Your biggest enemy is you, right? And there's a lot of truth to that. Your natural tendency is to not seek God. That's your natural tendency. If you just let things go and you don't do anything about it, you're not going to seek after God. Even as a believer in Jesus, our natural tendency is not to seek God. Our natural tendency is not to walk with God and grow in our relationship with God. Our natural tendency is to drift away.

If we're going to walk with God, if we're going to seek God, it's going to take some deliberate decisions on our part. And as we take those deliberate or make those deliberate decisions, as we take it seriously and desire to draw near to God, well, the last thing that we need is hurdles or obstacles in the way. Because already our natural tendency is to not seek God. Now, OK, well, maybe I'll seek God. I mean, it sounds pretty good. I know I need it. Oh, but I got to cross over that river. Never mind. Never mind.

It's easy for us when we have hurdles and obstacles in the way because we're already inclined not to seek God. Those hurdles, those obstacles, they may not be big deals. They may not be insurmountable. They don't have to be impossible. But a lot of times those hurdles are just enough for us in our flesh to say, yeah, I'll pass. It's okay. There's too many bridges to cross. Now,

I'm using the geography as an illustration. Hopefully you understand I'm not talking about, you know, crossing over water to get to church. Things are different today because of the cross. Today, you don't have to go to a specific location to meet with God. In their day, they did. They had to go to the tabernacle. God required that. Three times a year, they were required to go to the tabernacle, but they were invited to go anytime. But there was this hurdle now, and they were

Crossing over less frequently and less frequently and drifting away. And the same thing can happen in our spiritual life. It's not that we have to go to a specific location, but we do need to connect with God in a real way. We do need to walk with Him. And sometimes there can develop in our hearts and in our lives obstacles and hurdles. Things that get in the way of us connecting with God. And sometimes that's sinful things.

outright rebellion against God, you know, things that God has forbidden in his word. And sometimes it's things that might even be good, things that might even be, you know, not sin, things that we wouldn't think of as a big problem like the Jordan River. It's not a big deal really until it's in the path of your walk with God and it's now a hurdle that you have to get over. I would ask you to consider your spiritual life, your walk with God. Are there things that get in the way of

of you spending time with God in his word? Are there things that get in the way of you spending time with him in prayer? Are there things that get in the way of you spending time with him in worship? Is there anything that hinders? Anything you kind of have to crawl over in order to have that connection with God and to have that contact with God? For these tribes, Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, now they had this permanent boundary, this permanent barrier, this permanent hurdle that they would have to deal with

Every time they wanted to go to the tabernacle and then later on the temple. Now, God had promised the temple, right? Or not the temple, but he promised that there was going to be a place where that would be his permanent home, his permanent location. They didn't know where that location was. It ended up being Jerusalem. They didn't know that at the time, but here's what they knew. They knew for sure it wasn't on the east side of the Jordan River. It was on the west side.

And so they set themselves up in a place where they were always going to have this hurdle to deal with. And God let them make that choice. You can see, and I'm not going to turn you there this morning, but you can check out Numbers chapter 32 later on, where they make this decision.

They see the land. They say, oh, this is really good for us, man. This is going to be great. Look, all of our flocks and herds here, our families are going to be great here. They're going to have so much room to stretch out and run around and have some fun. And we're just going to really be settled here. It's going to be awesome. Now, Moses was upset with them for suggesting this. He says, how could you suggest this? You're going to discourage the rest of the people who are going into the promised land. And they're going to have to face all these battles. And

You're not going to be with them. And so then what Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh said was, no, no, no, it's OK. We'll leave our wives and children and our livestock here. We'll cross over the soldiers with the rest of Israel. We'll help conquer the land that God's promised to us. And then we'll come back after the victory has happened. After we've conquered the promised land, we'll come back to our wives and children over here and get settled on this side. And Moses said, OK, if you do that,

then you can have this land to inhabit. You can make that choice if you want to. If you want to put this barrier between you and God, God lets you make those kinds of choices.

If you want to have this boundary, this obstacle that you have to crawl over to get to God, God doesn't place any obstacles before you. He doesn't say, all right, if you want to walk with me, you want to have relationship with me, you know, jump this high, go through this hoop, you know, go through that tunnel. He doesn't, he makes the way wide open. Through the cross, Christ dying upon the cross for us, the veil has been opened for

The holy of holies is opened up. You have access to the very presence of God. And God says, come on in. Whoever wants to, come have relationship with me. Come get to know me. Come. And you have the relationship with God that you desire. And some people might think, no, I really wish I had a better relationship with God. Well, that's up to you. God doesn't put limitations. He doesn't say, OK, Jake, you can come this far. Chico, you can come a lot farther.

God gives access, the same access to every person. You're as close to God as you want to be. It's your choice. But a lot of times that choice is impacted by the other choices that you make. Are there any obstacles in your life? Do you have a clear path to God? Let me give you some examples. Now, these are not, thus says the Lord. This is more like, maybe says the Lord.

If the Lord's speaking to you about these things, then you can listen and take heed to that. But I just want to give you some examples that maybe would help you understand and help you seek the Lord about obstacles or hurdles that are potentially in your life. Sometimes in our gung-ho excitement, we try to take on too much in our walk with the Lord, and it can become an obstacle. For many years, I encouraged the body here to go through the Bible in one year.

And it was a blessing. And there was, you know, some who did. We went through the Bible in one year together, and it was always a blessing. And year after year, I would encourage people. And there was a pattern that I would see develop in people, but also that I also recognized was there in me. And that is, it started out in January of

And it's like, oh, this is great. This is good stuff, man. You're working your way through Genesis. And there's all these cool accounts of the beginning of the nation of Israel and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and all these cool, exciting things. And then you get into the book of Exodus. And Exodus is exciting, too, as God takes his people out of Egypt. And you see all the plagues and the miracles that God works. And you get to the end of Exodus, where you begin to see the details of the tabernacle. And there it begins to like, oh,

bogged down a little bit because here's all these dimensions and this dimension, that dimension, dimension, dimension, dimension, dimension, dimension. And you're like, whoa, that's a lot of information. And then it's all repeated because God gives them all the information and then all those details are repeated as they build it.

And you're just like, whoa. And then so your kind of excitement starts to die down a bit. Like, it's not so fun to wake up and read the Bible anymore. It's like number after number after number. If you've been reading through the Bible in three years and you read all the genealogies this week, you understand what I'm talking about, right? But then you hit Leviticus after that. And then it really comes crashing down because here's all the legalistic details of the law, right?

which were important, which were necessary. But, you know, this is written for priests. It's like, you know, reading, you know, details for doctors or, you know, for an engineer or something. It's like all this specifications and stuff that normal people don't need to know. But that's Leviticus. It's all the details for the priests on how things were to be run for the spiritual health of the nation. And so what happens oftentimes is, you know, January is good. February is good.

Towards the end of February, it begins to die off. People aren't reading as much. March, mostly everybody's out. There's only a handful left to continue reading through the Bible in a year. And it really can become an obstacle. Because now, I've experienced this, right? So now, it's not a joy to spend time in the Word anymore.

I'm not enjoying this time. I'm not, I'm not, it's not enjoyable. I'm not really having fun. I'm not hearing from God. I'm not really seeking God. I'm just kind of plowing through, just trying to get through the passage. It's trying to, you know, make it happen so I can get on with the rest of my day. It can become an obstacle. Sometimes it becomes an obstacle because, well, I fell behind. And man, now to catch up, I don't just have to read three or four chapters today. I mean, I got to read 12 or 15 chapters today. And I was like,

I can't read 12 or 15 chapters. And so I don't read at all because I can't read all those chapters that I'm supposed to read in order to be, you know, really awesome religious dude and, you know, have all my reading schedule caught up and all the check marks marked. Now, reading schedules can be really helpful. And reading through the Bible in a year is a great thing to do. It's not a bad thing to do. Obviously, you know, I enjoy reading schedules and I encourage all of us to read through the Bible in three years. I think it's a good thing to do.

But if it becomes an obstacle, if it becomes a hurdle, then you need to reevaluate. It's not about a legalistic system. It's about you connecting with God in his word. And that's why I always encourage people, listen, if you get behind, don't worry about catching up. Just read today what God scheduled for today. Because...

Many times, at least what happens in my life, is I get so concerned about what I didn't read, and I'm all shamed and guilted over that, and there's all this burden that I carry for that, and so then I have to like catch up, but I don't have time to do all that reading, and so then it just really encourages me not to read at all. That's not good. You need to spend time in the Word of God. You need to spend time with Him, hearing from Him, and so if that becomes an obstacle, do something else. Mix it up. Let God show you, but

But you need to spend time with God and his word. And you need to spend time with God in prayer. And there can be obstacles and hurdles that we set up in our zeal. All right, yeah, I want to pray. So I'm going to start a prayer list. And soon I have, you know, 450 items on my prayer list. And I get up in the morning to pray and go, how do you even pray for that much stuff? And so you just, you know, plow through it. Lord, pray for all these things. Lord, bless all those things. Bless all those situations. Or...

You just go, I can't do it. And you move on. And it's great to be zealous about prayer. It's great to have an awesome prayer list. But we got to be careful that these things don't hinder us. Sometimes they work against us. And they keep us from spending time with God in prayer instead of helping us in time with God in prayer. And so there can be these boundaries that we set up. We position ourself to fail.

in our time in the Word and time of prayer. And we need to let God show us those areas where there's hurdles, where there's things that we have to crawl over and fight through. And it's a burden to spend time with God, where, of course, it's always going to be a battle because our flesh is there, and our flesh does not want to be with God. But at the same time, it shouldn't be that much of a fight. You should be able to get up and spend time with God and enjoy it and walk with Him and hear from Him

That's how God wants it to be. So those are a couple examples, but there's some other examples to consider as well. Perhaps things like television. Television makes a nice long Jordan River because, of course, you come home from work, you're tired, television is there, it's nice and easy, you can just lay there and not move a muscle except for maybe the thumb, you know, to switch the channel. I understand that. I know what that's like. It's easy and it can become a boundary.

Not that television, all television is sinful and wrong and you should not have a TV in your house. Is that what I'm saying? No, absolutely not. Again, the Jordan River wasn't that big of a deal. It was just a river. But we got to watch out for those things that they're normal, they're natural, but they can easily become boundaries. And if you find that, well, you're not spending time with God, you're not walking with God, you don't have a clear path to God because there's these things that I'd rather kind of do that. It's kind of like Dr. Pepper.

Now, I love Dr. Pepper. It's my favorite thing to drink of all time. And those who've been around know there used to be the days back when I was the sound guy, I would be back in the sound booth with two liter bottles, not like once in a while, but like every week, a couple times a week. I'd be drinking Dr. Pepper in ungodly amounts, right?

But Dr. Pepper is not sin. But the way that I drink it is sin. So today, I don't drink that much Dr. Pepper because I love it too much. And if I get a taste, then I like to keep on drinking and keep on drinking. And I'll crave it. And I'll want more of it. We got to recognize those things in our lives that become obstacles and hurdles that obstruct our path to God. There's some things that are not necessarily sin in and of themselves.

but can consume us, can take away our time, and can block us from spending time with God, from hearing from God. And maybe it's that favorite team that you just got to follow. Maybe it's that awesome show that you got to watch every episode. Maybe it's all the Facebook posts that you got to keep up with. Maybe it's your kids' sports schedule. Hey, listen, parents, just quick side note. Make sure that you as a parent don't prepare more for their future than you do for their eternity.

Make sure that you prepare them for eternity and help them, position them for faithfulness as well. And don't get them so caught up in other things that they don't have opportunity to hear from God and walk with God too. Well, finally, one last example, and that is sin. Practicing sin is more than just setting up hurdles or obstacles. It's setting up roadblocks in your path to God. And so if there's sin that you know about in your life, things that you're doing you know are wrong, well,

You know, first and foremost, what you need to do. You need to turn from that sin. You need to repent of that sin and clear the roads so that you can have clear access to God once again. James tells us in James 4, 8, he says, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Awesome promise, right? Draw near to God. He'll draw near to you. If you clear the path and walk to God, he meets you. He's there with you. He wants to connect with you.

But then James goes on to say, cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. There's a need for us to turn from things that we know are wrong, that we know are sin, so that we have a clear access to God or a clear path to God. It's not that God, you know, is keeping himself from us, but we set up these roadblocks. We set up these hurdles and we allow these things to be established and we make the choice to dwell on the other side of the river.

Well, finally, point number three is stay connected to God's people. Stay connected to God's people. And again, I'd like to remind you of the geography here. And I'm just finding this spot on the slides. There we go. So again, the geography is very similar to the previous point. You have Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh on the east side. And then on the west side, you have the promised land and all the rest of the tribes of Israel.

And just as the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan, and the Dead Sea became a natural obstacle, a natural barrier, a natural division between them and the place of God, it became a barrier between them and the rest of the people of God. And it ended up dividing them pretty quickly, distancing them from God's people pretty quickly. In fact, later on, I would encourage you to check out Joshua chapter 22. In Joshua chapter 22, it says,

after Joshua leads the people into the promised land and they have victory, they conquer the peoples of the promised land. Joshua says to Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, all right, you guys have fulfilled your commitment. You've helped us in these battles. And so now you can go home, go back across the river to that place that you wanted, and you can live there and you can be established there. And so in Joshua chapter 22, he says, thank you,

Go on home, but then he also encourages them, hey, make sure that you do the commandment, that you stay faithful to God, that you love God and hold fast to his ways. And so these soldiers from Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh work their way back to the Jordan River and then about to cross. Now, as they're about to cross over, they decide, you know, we're going to set up an altar right here on the bank of the Jordan River. And the rest of the nation heard about this, and they came out ready to fight.

Because, well, God had just given them great victory. And how dare these people set up an altar and begin to worship, you know, in somewhere else that God had forbidden or some other location that God hadn't told them to. They were to worship God at the tabernacle. And so they were offended that they built the altar and thought that they were turning away from God. So they go out to confront Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh. And Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh say, oh, no, no, no, no. We're not going to worship at this altar. We're not going to use it for sacrifices.

We just want this to be here as a witness, as a testimony. We're going to build another altar on the other side, and they're going to be identical.

And what we're thinking about is, well, later on when you begin to say to us, hey, you can't come over here and worship God. You're not part of us. You're not part of our people. And when your children or your children's children say, who are these guys across the river? Yeah, they don't have a part with us. Why do we let them come over and worship at the tabernacle? And so Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh are thinking ahead and thinking, you know, they're going to try to maybe disown us later on. And so we're going to build these altars on both sides so that we can see and everybody can be reminded that

We're part of God's people too. And so they're thinking ahead, but you can see already some problems developing. First of all, there's the division. There's the miscommunication between the two. But they're already concerned about, well, later on, people are going to forget that we're part of God's people too. And they distance themselves from the rest of God's people. They weren't concerned about their faithfulness. They weren't thinking they needed a reminder to

to be faithful to God. They were thinking, those people need to remember that we're part of God's people too. And so they built the altar, not to remind themselves, but to remind others. Listen, sometimes believers today do similar things. There's a separation, there's a division, there's a distancing between them and other believers. But they want to make sure that other people remember and know, well, yeah, yeah, no, I'm part of

You guys too. I'm part of that group. I'm a Christian too. I believe in Jesus too. But there's this distance. And so they are quick to remind, not worried about their own faithfulness. Oh, no, no, I'm fine. I'm fine. Even though I'm distant, even though I'm not around, even though I'm far away, I'm not really connected. I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm good. But you just remember that I'm also part of you. I'm part of God's people. There's a problem.

when we allow there to be obstacles and hurdles between us and God's people. And specifically, I would encourage you to consider that the church that God has called you to be part of, God has not designed us to be independent. He's designed us to be interdependent as believers in Jesus. And you may not be concerned about your faithfulness, but you should be.

Because our natural inclination, again, is to drift away from God. And one of the reasons why God has designed us to be interdependent upon one another is so that we can be part of the glorious experience of blessing each other and building each other up and being part of the eternity that each other has. But also, God has designed us to be interdependent because we need each other in our lives to help us

from drifting away, from drifting to unfaithfulness to God. Consider what the author of Hebrews wrote in Hebrews chapter 3. In verse 12, he says, "...beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin."

The author of Hebrews says, there's a danger. Beware, watch out. Here's the warning. You potentially could have an evil heart of unbelief and depart from the living God. And so to counteract that, he says, exhort one another daily while it's called today. Is it still called today? It's still called today. So exhort one another daily, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. He says, look, there's a danger. We can become hardened.

And so we need the presence of each other in our lives to protect us from that hardening, to protect us from that evil heart of unbelief that would cause us to depart from the living God. God's designed us to need one another. He's designed us. And so position yourself for faithfulness by staying connected to God's people. Disconnected people are always surprised when they fall away, but it shouldn't be that surprising.

It's like being surprised when you take a fish out of the water and then it dies. I can't believe that fish died. Well, of course it died sitting there on your counter. It's not designed that way. It has to be in the water to have life. In the same way, as believers, you're not designed to be all alone. You're not designed to be on your own. And I would encourage you, you're not designed to have, you know, church attendance all

One day a week, come Sunday morning, and that's all the Christian interaction you need all week long. You're not designed that way. You need more interaction than that. You need more fellowship than that. And I don't necessarily mean you have to come to every service. It's not about that. It's about you having real meaningful relationships with other believers. You need to have those kinds of connections. Stay connected to the people of God. And if there's hurdles in the way, if you've got to drive 45 minutes to get to the people of

Then maybe you need to look around somewhere else. If that becomes a hurdle where I just, it's, I would go to church tonight, but it's just too far. Hey, if that's a hurdle, I mean, if that's your thinking, if that's your reasoning, find somewhere else because it's more important that you be connected. I know, I understand. We're family and we're blessed. I mean, we love one another and it's different somewhere else. But at the same time, you got to position yourself for faithfulness.

So you got to surround yourself with other believers. You got to be connected in a meaningful way with other believers. Set yourself up to succeed. How do we do that? Number one, we keep crying out to God. Number two, keep a clear path to God. And number three, we stay connected to God's people. Let me remind you of what I shared at the beginning. Jesus talked about the wise and the foolish builder. What kind of builder are you for your spiritual life? Are you preparing for storms? Or are you thinking, hey, I've

Good enough. Just build right here. I'm set. It's okay. There's some obstacles. There's some hurdles, but I'm okay. I'm good. I'm good. We're good here. Like Ruben Gadim and Asa, you're like, hey, this is great. I mean, the kids are doing awesome. This is great for our business. You know, things are rocking here for our business. It's great. It's great here. But are you maintaining a relationship with God that you're going to need for the storms that come ahead?

If you're not maintaining that relationship, if you're not drawing near to God, you're drifting away and you will come to the same point that Reuben Gad and Manasseh came to in verse 25. It says, they were unfaithful to the God of their fathers and played the harlot after the gods of the peoples of the land whom God had destroyed before them. We have to draw near to God or we will drift away from God. It's one way or the other. Position yourself for faithfulness. Set yourself up.

for victory in your spiritual walk by crying out to God and continuing to cry out to him by keeping a clear path. If you're practicing sin, repent. Get rid of those obstacles. If there's hurdles and things in the way in your relationship, remove them. Make sure you have a clear path to God. It's easy for you to get to him, to spend time with him. And make sure you also have a clear path to God's people so that you can stay connected, maintain those relationships, and

It's important for you. It's important for them. God's designed us to need one another. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word, for the opportunity to know you and walk with you. And I pray, Lord, that you would help us to look ahead and to prepare. Lord, you said that the storms would come, both for those who built on the rock and those who built on the sand. We're all going to face them. And Lord, we may not think that at the moment. Lord, we may not see the storms coming, but

But they're there and I pray that you would help us to take heed to these warnings and prepare. Lord, that we would not just coast because when we're coasting, Lord, we begin to drift away. We begin to wander. Lord, we need to be engaged in a real relationship with you, to know you, to hear from you.

and to be part of your people. And so, Lord, help us to do that. And if there's any obstacles, Lord, help us to recognize those and remove them. Lord, if there's any sin, I pray that you would reveal that to help us repent, Lord, to turn from sin, that we might follow you and have full access to you. I pray, Lord, that you would do a great work in us as we seek to draw near to you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.